(Wall Street Journal) – At a gathering there, Huang told customers and employees of his strong commitment to the Chinese market, according to a recording. That meant Nvidia intended to keep selling chips for artificial intelligence in China, holding back their performance to comply with ever-tighter curbs imposed by Washington.

A week later, Nvidia’s stock price fell 17% in a single day, after Chinese company DeepSeek said it achieved a leap in its AI capabilities using less-advanced Nvidia chips. Some investors interpreted the advance as undercutting the market in the West for Nvidia’s top-of-the-line products.

Yet Nvidia knew that risk came with what it was doing in China, the country identified by both political parties in Washington as America’s biggest global rival. (Read More)